Lassa column: Local kids learn the lessons of Earth Day

When Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson started the first Earth Day back in 1970, he proposed that it be a "national teach-in" to raise the public's awareness of the damage humans were doing to their environment and what could be done to halt and reverse that trend. Educational institutions responded, and today it's great to see our young people learning, teaching, and acting to help build a more sustainable future.

There are plenty of great examples here in the 24th state Senate District. Take for instance the kids of the Sparta High School Earth Club, who this past December won their age bracket in the Polar Bears Ambassadors Contest sponsored by Polar Bears International. They won by submitting a video documenting their impressive efforts, in partnership with Century Foods International, to help both their school and the company reduce their environmental footprint. Their prize for winning the Polar Bears International contest was a trip for two to Churchill, Manitoba, to see polar bears in the wild during the fall polar bear migration.

Club members created "bear-rels," white collection bins painted with a smiling polar bear face, to collect aluminum cans. They've also been collecting plastic wrap and shopping bags, sorting and packing it all in a special recycling room on campus, and shipping it all off to a recycling center. With the money they raised, they helped the high school convert from using plastic cutlery and Styrofoam bowls to real silverware and compartmentalized serving trays.

That's not all. The Earth Club members also placed recycling bins next to trash containers throughout the school. And in addition to hauling away aluminum cans from Century Foods, they've also helped the company's four plants in Sparta achieve a 94 percent recycling efficiency rating. The club members continue to look for more ways to promote conservation practices and awareness of climate change, inspired by their desire to help preserve the habitat of the threatened polar bears.

The kids at Tomah High School have a very active chapter of the famous naturalist Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots program. The group holds a variety of events to raise funds and other kinds of support to help animals, both wild and domestic. For instance, their annual Holiday Pet Food Drive has collected more than 6,000 pounds of food to distribute to the local animal shelter. They also participate in the annual Polar Plunge fundraiser and have a citywide cleanup scheduled for April 26.

Both Marshfield and Stevens Point high schools have teams that compete in the annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl, a national academic competition for high schools on topics related to the study of the oceans. The contest gives kids a chance to learn about the oceans in an interdisciplinary way, gives them exposure to career choices in the ocean sciences, and builds a spirit of stewardship for the seas and the creatures who live there. Last year, the Marshfield team won the competition and enjoyed an expedition to Hawaii as their prize.

School kids throughout Wood County have been engaged in hands-on learning about where their food comes from as part of the county's Farm-to-School program. In addition to providing fresh, local produce for the school nutrition program, the program also includes classroom lessons about the effects of food and farming choices on their personal health and the health of the planet. And it gives students the chance to have hands on experience growing food in school gardens for their classmates to eat and helping to process food grown at local farms.

To become good stewards of the Earth, our young people must learn to understand it and appreciate how our physical, social, and spiritual health depends on it. I'm glad that kids throughout central and western Wisconsin are learning that important lesson.

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Lassa column: Local kids learn the lessons of Earth Day

When Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson started the first Earth Day back in 1970, he proposed that it be a 'national teach-in' to raise the public's awareness of the damage humans were doing to their

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